The Child Tax Credit for Pregnant Moms Act would extend the existing child tax credit to apply to the unborn child prior to birth and permit the credit to be claimed in the child’s first year of life. The credit could only be claimed once the child is born and receives a Social Security Number or other tax identification number.

Sen. Steve Daines

House sponsor Rep. Meadows stated, “It’s simple: expectant mothers and fathers deserve the same financial assistance and tax credit benefits to begin planning for a new child as parents blessed with children already born. The work, care, and costs associated with motherhood begin long before a child is born, and this legislation gives moms and their families an opportunity for a better start.”

Rep. Luke Messer

A provision related to the unborn and college savings in the recent tax bill (ultimately struck from the final version due to Senate rules) drew the ire of the extreme pro-abortion lobby, including NARAL and Planned Parenthood. Even though that provision, like the Child Tax Credit for Pregnant Moms Act, in no ways deals with abortion, the pro-abortion lobby’s ideology compels it to deny the very existence of unborn human beings in any area of the law.

Senator Joni Ernst

NARAL tweeted at the time, “The GOP’s relentless obsession with advancing its dangerous anti-choice ideology knows no boundaries and no common sense.”

Recognizing an unborn baby so the parents can receive a tax benefit is “dangerous”? Hardly.

Sen. James Lankford

National Right to Life has previously supported other legislative efforts that are now law that follow the same principle of recognizing the unborn child. For example, there is the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (also known as “Laci and Conner’s Law”), enacted in 2004 after a five-year effort led by the NRLC. The law recognizes that when a criminal attacks a pregnant woman, and injures or kills both her and her unborn child, he has claimed two victims.

This is good public policy. National Right to Life supports this effort and looks forward to working with Congress to pass this legislation and getting it onto the desk of President Trump.